Not long before the Winter Holidays, Hennessey strapped a Christmas tree to the roof of their Venom 1000 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, put the ‘Grinch’ behind the wheel, and recorded a 192 mph (309 kph) top speed run. But how quick is the ultra-powerful muscle car without the tree?
The question was recently answered by the Lone Star State tuner, which used Continental’s Uvalde Proving Grounds, in Texas, to set it loose and see where it would top out. With a skilled driver holding the wheel, a third-party device clocked it at 204.4 mph (329 kph), which could very well make it the world’s fastest Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. Still, you may want to mark it with an asterisk, because there’s no way of knowing if it truly is the fastest of its kind or not.
As a reminder, the Venom 1000 boasts 1,000 hp (1,014 ps/746 kW) at 7,000 rpm and 850 lb-ft (1,152 Nm) of torque at 4,800 rpm. Upgrades over the stock supercharged 5.2-liter V8, which is rated at 760 hp (771 ps/567 kW) and 625 lb-ft (847 Nm), revolve around the supercharger, fuel injectors, fuel line and fittings, intercooler, air/oil separator, calibration for the engine and transmission, and others. Chassis dyno testing and road testing up to 500 miles (805 km) are included, and each car gets the usual exterior badges, and a serial-numbered plaque, and it is accompanied by a 3-year/36,000-mile (57,936-km) warranty.
In case you forgot, the Venom 1000 isn’t Hennessey’s punchiest version of the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. That role is reserved for the Venom 1200 package, which comprises a 3.8-liter supercharger system, upgraded engine internals, software remap, recalibrated transmission, and so on. The result, in this case, is 1,204 hp (1,221 ps/898 kW) at 7,600 rpm and 902 lb-ft (1,223 Nm) of torque at 5,200 rpm. This makes it much more powerful than the original Bugatti Veyron, which is still a multi-million dollar affair, and it might just give it a run for its money on a perfect day, in ideal conditions, and with someone who knows what they are doing sitting in the driver’s seat.
Mind you, there is a small issue here, because in order to squeeze out the aforementioned output, you will have to fill the tank with E85, as on regular 93-octane pump gasoline, the V8 will churn out ‘only’ 900 hp. Still, that is way more than what you would get in most modern-day supercars, and the Venom 1200 is a bit more affordable than those blue-blooded products, as it costs $190,000. But if you had that much money burning a hole in your pocket and a big desire to spend them on a fast ride, would you really get the Venom 1200 or something else entirely? Speak your mind in the comments area down below.
After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News